But this year more than ever, black-tie attendees are wrestling with the paradox of watching a film about poverty before heading off to indulge in the Cannes feeding frenzy and its accompanying displays of conspicuous wealth.

The double blow of the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China earlier this month may have encouraged this reflection. The inclusion of the documentary "The End of Poverty?" in the Critics Week sidebar -- a sort of "An Inconvenient Truth" for global economics -- no doubt further pricked some consciences. The film asks one simple question: With so much wealth in the world, why is there so much poverty?

"There's something a bit wrong about sitting in a room full of people with tuxedos watching a film about social deprivation," said German director Andreas Dresen.

"It can seem paradoxical," added Cannes festival president Gilles Jacob. "But every day terrible things happen in the world that you watch on television during your dinner. If you really looked, you'd give up eating. It's no more shocking to continue eating while people are dying than it is going on the red carpet."

However audiences are dressed, social deprivation and strife were high on the menu this year. Brazilian filmmakers Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas took Cannes audiences to the streets of Sao Paulo in "Linha de passe," while Matteo Garrone's acclaimed competition entry "Gomorra" exposed the squalid lives endured by people closer to home in Naples.

"There is a contrast, but it doesn't bother me," said Garrone. "Contrasts are interesting, and enjoying yourself here doesn't mean you can can't also give the correct importance to other things."

Other movies spread through Cannes find characters variously eking out an existence in a Romanian hovel, scraping by on the Kazakh steppes, living homeless on the streets of France, enduring the rigors of an Argentine women's prison or dodging bullets as child-soldiers in Africa.

Jury president Sean Penn, for his special movie selection, chose a documentary about volunteers in Sri Lanka dealing with the aftermath of the tsunami in 2004.

WHERE'S THE BAR?

"When the (harrowing) films are over, you need a drink," Focus Features CEO James Schamus said.

Produced by California-based Cinema Libre Studio, "End of Poverty?" provides some grim statistics: 25,000 people die around the world every day from hunger, and 1 billion live on less than a dollar a day. Told in a conventional documentary style mainly through interviews with economists, historians and politicians, "End of Poverty?" sets out a powerful description of how Western policies since colonialism have subjugated Third World countries. "They are poor because we are rich," said Philippe Diaz, who wrote and directed the film.

"The most important thing for us is to raise awareness. Ten years ago no one talked about climate change. After 'An Inconvenient Truth' it's now talked about all over the place," Diaz added.

International catastrophes have certainly encroached on the Croisette this year. The Cannes market's opening night party was dedicated to the victims of the China earthquake and a screening of Wong Kar-Wai's "Ashes of Time Redux" was preceded by a well-observed minute's silence for the same cause. On Monday, monks marched on Cannes city hall to call attention to the plight of the cyclone-hit Burmese.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter